Bellows-fold coupling



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BELLOWS FOLD COUPLING. No. 403,224. Patented May 14, 1889.

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Patented May 14, 1889.

SESSIONS.

BELLOWS FOLD COUPLING.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY HOWVARD SESSIONS, OF PULLHAN, ASSIGNOR TO THE PULLMANS PALACE CAR COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

BELLOWS-FOLD COUPLING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 403,224, dated May 14, 1889.

Application filed November 19, 1887. Serial No. 255,660. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY HOWARD SEs- SIONS,a citizen of the United States, residing at the village of Pullman, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Bellows-Fold Couplings, which I desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United Stat-es, of which the following is a specification.

The chief purpose of my invention is to provide a fabric, seamless in the sense of stitching, adapted to be used in joining railroadcars,-in which a connection is made between the ends of adjacent cars to complete a platform vestibule. It is necessary that this portion interposed between the solid portions to permit the usual playbetween cars should be flexible and at all times retain its proper shape, and possess properties of strength and durability commensurate with the great amount of wear and service to which it is subjected. To meet these requirements my improvement is specially adapted. The article of manufacture herein shown and described may also be applied to purposes analogous to that above named.

In the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a transverse sectiou of the bellows-fold device. Fig. 2 is a perspective of the same. Fig. 3 is an elevation in which the foregoing device is applied as a vestibule-connection between. car

Fig. 4 is a detail.

The folding device, as a whole, is designated A. Two like portions or sections thereof one 011 each side-are required to constitute the side walls of the vestibule-connection, in which sections belonging to one car are adapted to meet like sections of the adjoining car. The folds B B constitute the portions by which the device is secured in position, one of which in the application to cars is attached to the fixed portion of the car and the other to a vertical plate that is adj ustable and adapted to meet and abut a similar plate attached to the flexible portion belonging to the adjacent car. The connection. be-

tween the parts 13 B and the solid parts to which they are attached may be effected by rivets or in any convenient manner. Lengths corresponding to an elevation of the device (shown. in cross-section, Fig. -1, and perspective, Fig. 2,) are provided, adapted in longitudinal extent to meet the requirements. For example, in the application to cars a section reaching from the platform at a to theroof at a of the respective car ends 1 and 2 would be appropriate.

In the detail section, Fig. at, 1) represents a portion of a Vertical timber secured on the front of the platform, extending to the roof, and cl represents a portion of a buffer-plate, also extending to the roof, that is secured to an adjustable foot plate or portion to bridge the footway between cars. A section, A, of the flexible connection is interposed between the two, one of the folds, B, being secured to timber b and the other fold, B, to the plate d. In this figure the plate 61 is shown advanced or forced outward, which is the result of springs beneath the platform, by which it is backed. This also shows the flexible connection as when expanded.

In the application either B or B is secured to the car at b, and the other side fold to the abutting plate belonging thereto of the vertical plates 0. A flexible portion, operating as described, is known and used in connection with railroad-cars, in which springs are applied that force said flexible parts outward. A device fabricated or constructed in the manner shown is especially adapted to the purpose for which it is designed, in which, besides an appropriate expansible and contractive character, strength and durability are needed. The interior structure of the fabric is shown in Fig. 1, in which layers of textile fabric alternate with the layers of rubber, and in which the relation of intermediate branches or folds, D D, to the side folds, B B is shown, and the relation of interior folds, E, F, and G, to folds D D is illustrated. The number of interior folds may of course be increased or diminished to suit the requirements. The textile portion. of the fabric, represented by the thicker of the two kinds of layers, is designated 6, and the rubber shown in thinner layers is designated 2'. A series of these textile and rubber layers, sufficient in number to produce the desired thickness of the fold and of the desired length, are placed together to form said fold, and in addition thereto to furnish material for a connecting branch, the two portions being compactly united by adhesion at one of the edges-as, for example, from m to nand diverging from the latter point the layers of branch 1) again uniting with branch G, or 1) with E, &c., to continue and unite the interior folds. The

layers of textile fabric may, if desired, be i platform, and an adjustable buffer-plate, d,

first prepared with coatings of rubber and then brought together. Outer re-enforcing layers, (1, of such formation are shown, that cover both surfaces of the folds and protect the layers externally and also afford protection at theinner angles of intersection. These external layers, (1, are in the present example of a length to meet and overlap ends centrally as, for illustration, atj. To further re-enforce the inner angles, gussets I, preferably in longitudinal extent equal. to the length of the fold, are interposed within the angles formed by the primary layers and are inclosed by the external layer, (Z. In addition to the layers described, to protect the edges of the fabric and further re-enforce the angles, end coverings or layers, 1, of rubber are applied, as shown in Fig. 2.

In constructing the folds of a device the rubber is applied While in a plastic state, but so prepared as to vulcanize to a proper degree, in which flexibility is important. After this the fold structure is hot-rolled and the vulcanizing ell'ected. It is not essential to my invention that the construction of the fold device should in all details conform to the specification, as a formation based upon the general plan described may be made to serve etfectually all the requirements.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to protect by Letters Patent, 15-- 1. As an element in the construction of vestibules or inelosures between adjacent ends of railway-cars, the bellows-fold connection eonsistin of alternate layers of textile fabric and rubber and formed in folds, in which the series of said folds are joined one to another by adhesion of layers throughout a portion of their breadth, re-enforced by layers external and internal to the angles of intersection of said folds.

In railway-cars, the combination, with a timber or plate, 17, attached to the end of the adapted for extension or contraction with relation to said permanent timbcror plate, of a bellows-fold connection consisting of alternate layers of textile fabric and rubberand formed in folds, in which the series of said folds are joined one to another by adhesion of layers throughout a portion of their breadth, re-enforced by layers external and internal to the angles of intersection of said folds.

3. As a new article of n'ianufacture, a bellows-fold device consisting of a series of folds that are composed of alternate layers of textile fabric and rubber, said folds being united one to another by adhesion of layers throughout a portion of their breadth, effected by heating, and re-enforced by layers of like construction external to the primary layers, and further re-enforced by rubber gussets at the inner angles of intersection, which gussets are made an adhesive part of the folds by heating or pressure.

t. As a new article of manufacture, a bellows-fold device consisting of a series of folds that are composed of alternate layers of textile fabric and rubber, said folds being united one to another by adhesion of layers throughout a portion of their breadth, eflfccted by heating, an d re-enforced by layers of like construction external to the primary layers and further re-enforced by gussets at the inner angles of intersection.

HENRY HOWARD SESSIONS.

Vitnesses:

E. L. HUBER, .losEPI-i RIDGE. 

